South China Morning Post World

An administrative “honour system” that relied on Hong Kong’s private sector to regulate itself created oversight loopholes and left obvious fire hazards at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate unchecked before last year’s inferno, legal counsel for an independent committee investigating the disaster has said. In the final session of 30 days of public hearings, Victor Dawes SC said on Friday that the contractor and consultant behind the estate’s HK$336 million renovation project deserved the...

The legal team for an independent committee examining the cause of Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire has recommended that authorities gradually phase out bamboo scaffolding in favour of metal replacements, among other proposals ranging from legislative reform to measures to curb bid-rigging. The suggestions were outlined in 627 pages of closing submissions from the committee’s lawyers on Friday, concluding hearings that started in March to examine the Wang Fuk Court fire. The blaze last November...

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has postponed resuming direct flights to the Middle East amid recent signs that the Iran crisis is rekindling. The airline said on Friday that its daily passenger flights to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates would be postponed until October 25. Its four weekly flights to Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh would be delayed until October 26. Earlier this month, the airline said it planned to resume passenger services to the two destinations on September 1,..

The South China Morning Post has documented Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po blaze in a series of multimedia projects, from detailing the search and rescue mission to examining evidence revealed at public hearings set up to investigate the cause of the inferno. The fire, which engulfed the Wang Fuk Court residential complex last November, claimed 168 lives and displaced nearly 5,000 people, making it the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. For a deeper look at the causes of the tragedy, the “systemic...

The Coroner’s Court has ruled that a premature baby born at a Hong Kong public hospital died of natural causes, after an inquest revealed that a tube delivering medicine had remained closed for 30 minutes despite repeated checks by staff. The baby girl, Angel Yu Pui-fei, was born in June 2023 at 27 weeks’ gestation at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit due to complications arising from her premature birth. The court earlier heard evidence...

A former Hong Kong primary school IT technician has been sentenced to 11 years in jail after he admitted to repeatedly molesting three male pupils, with one of the boys still recovering from the trauma of being subjected to having intercourse with him. The High Court on Friday heard that 30-year-old Law Yuen-lung had been diagnosed with paedophilic disorder, despite his denials of having any sexual interest in children. The court also heard psychologists had assessed that he had lived a lonely..

Five Hong Kong booksellers arrested on suspicion of sedition have been released on bail two days after national security police raided a pair of independent bookshops where they worked. Police said the three women and two men, aged between 30 and 59, were released on Friday pending further investigation. A source earlier said the two bookstores involved were Have a Nice Stay bookshop in Prince Edward and Greenfield Book Store in Mong Kok. Media footage showed Sum Wan-wah, who was among a group..

Hong Kong’s legislature has passed a bill providing the legal basis for implementing a “co-location” arrangement at the upgraded Huanggang border crossing following a special, four-hour meeting, after the city’s security chief said it had to be approved by July 31. The passage on Friday of the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area Bill, gazetted on Tuesday, marked the fastest round of scrutiny since the Legislative Council’s 2021 overhaul under the “patriots administering Hong Kong”...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of wounding for allegedly shoving a classmate who remains in a serious condition two weeks after the incident. The force said on Friday that the suspect was arrested on Monday after an in-depth investigation. The teenager was subsequently released on bail pending further investigation and was required to report to police in late July, it added. The arrest was in connection with a report filed on July 3 about a 16-year-old boy who lost

Hong Kong adopted a ban on smoking at construction sites on Friday, with authorities issuing eight fixed penalty notices to workers and intending to prosecute a contractor over suspected rule violations. But many workers said they welcomed the ban and were hoping to finally quit the habit with the help of their employers. The ban was introduced in the wake of a fire at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court housing estate, a disaster that killed 168 people last November and was suspected to have been caused by

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. The young Chinese scientist behind ‘impossible’ breakthrough on sodium batteries Scientist Lu Yaxiang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, has spent a decade working to make sodium-ion batteries...

A Hong Kong taxi driver has died after his vehicle crashed into a railing in Tsuen Wan. According to police, the accident happened at 11.45pm on Thursday on Ma Tau Pa Road, when the cabby reportedly lost control of his vehicle and drove into a railing while travelling towards Tsuen Wan Riviera Park. Emergency responders arrived at the scene and found the driver unconscious, with no apparent external injuries. He was rushed to Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan, where he was pronounced dead at 1.06am

The weather in Hong Kong is expected to remain unsettled over the next few days, with showers and thunderstorms caused by a broad trough of low pressure, according to the Observatory. The forecaster said on Friday that the weekend would be mainly cloudy with a few showers and squally thunderstorms, with sunny intervals expected in the afternoon. It added that a few showers were expected on Sunday and more on Monday, before easing off gradually in the following couple of days. “Under the...

Victor Dawes, lead counsel for a panel investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, delivered his closing remarks at the final public inquiry session, wrapping up a months-long hearing into the tragedy. The 600-page statement covered the causes of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each involved party. The blaze that broke out on November 26, 2025, killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000. The estate was undergoing a HK$336 million...

Earlier this month, the first batch of 14,000 free tickets to visit the People’s Liberation Army’s naval vessels during their stopover in Hong Kong was claimed within minutes of being released. Families queued online for the opportunity to step aboard the ships, and the open days quickly became one of the most talked-about events of this year’s handover anniversary. The scenes stood in contrast to those of July 1997. When the PLA Hong Kong Garrison was first stationed following the handover,...

Taxi trade leader Chau Kwok-keung says he has never felt as much fear as he does now after transport minister Mable Chan set a 10,000-vehicle cap for ride-hailing service permits in May, in a bid to resolve what she called a “long-standing controversy” between traditional cabs and online service providers. Chau, a 40-year veteran of the industry, worries that the trade, comprising 18,163 taxis and about 46,000 active cabbies, will be driven into a dead end because he believes the quota will...

Although retail sales in Hong Kong rose more than 10 per cent year on year in the first five months of 2026, a wave of shop closures continues, leaving tenants and landlords with vastly different assessments of the retail leasing market. Many tenants say that despite racking their brains for solutions, their businesses remain stagnant. They are losing money because of constant price cutting to attract customers, a situation they attribute to the broader economic climate. Many hope for rent...

Hong Kong’s schools stand at a critical juncture as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes learning. The government’s Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools, launched last month just days ahead of Digital Education Week, sets out a clear vision with students as the focus, teachers as professionals, schools as the base and society as a partner. It has incorporated concerns and suggestions raised by educators and researchers, including an AI pedagogical...

Hong Kong authorities’ role in last year’s deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze was secondary to that of construction and fire service firms, which either conspired to circumvent supervision or neglected their statutory duties, a government counsel has argued. Wrapping up the government’s arguments at an independent committee inquiry into the tragedy, Jenkin Suen SC on Thursday attributed the inferno to the “deceit, inaction and deliberate omission” of contractors who exploited regulatory regimes founded

Hong Kong’s construction sector has rolled out a unified blueprint to enforce a strict, site-wide smoking ban taking effect on Friday, a major safety overhaul triggered by the deadly Tai Po fire last year. The guidelines, released by the Hong Kong Construction Association along with eight other industry groups on Thursday, are aimed at creating a unified and clear framework to ensure that different types of work abide by the same set of principles under the new smoking ban at sites. “The release